Friday, June 30, 2006

I woke up this morning, surprisingly quite quickly, and wondered "Damn, what am I gonna write about in my blog today?" I have a short bout of writer's block and can't think of anything interesting to talk about. Who me? Noooo. Yes, yes. And I am tired of writing about my weekends. As eventful as they may be most of the time, I am hoping for a quiet one this time. I need to sleep.

My dear ol' friend Marbro (the REAL Marbro) has come to my rescue today. Bless him. And apparently I owe him a hug tonight. Poor me. He has challenged me to come up with 10 words starting with the letter C. I love a challenge. But C? Come on, that is so easy. Does he think I am stupid? Ok, don't answer that. It was a rhetorical question.

So here goes nothing, with a short explanation of each word:

Car: what I don't have, wonder if I will ever have, since I still don' t have my license.Carrots: good for your eyes, one of the few vegetables I enjoy eating.Chocolate: almost better than sex, helps to clear a lot of hormonal women's bad moods. Thank god for chocolate!Chat: what I do all day instead of work. Condoms: I always thought they were balloons. Apparently someone lied to me. Practice safe sex people!Caribbean: where I will one day retireCherry: Marbro's choice of fruit. He's so fruity.Celibacy: Marbro's unfortunate lifestyle.Chipssss: potato stick things that Ferdi loves and what will eventually kill him one day.C-c-c-c-c-c-lowns: freaky creatures with too much make-up that I am still afraid of.

See? That was easy. Marbro, I bet you didn't expect me to include that last word. Waaaaaaitt a minute, so THAT is why you asked me to use the letter C? Sneaky fruitloop. No hug for you tonight!

I am not gonna challenge anyone since most of the people have already been challenged.Have a good weekend peeeps!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

1. I spent most of the day chatting to people and before I knew it, I realised that it's almost time to go.2. I am leaving just now, going to see my doctor, then I am going home.3. I worked till late last night, so I am tired and grumpy today.4. I am just not in the mood

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

My arm is sore. The part where my doctor injected me with the tetanus shot is swollen to the size of 2 five rand coins. The pain has now travelled right down to my hand, which is already sore from the cut. So I am not in the mood to type much, not that I can really, cause I had to bandage my hand to prevent further injuries, since I am jinxed.

During the past few years, I have fallen down the stairs once, fallen from a 1.5m wall once, bumped into several things (make that about 100 times) and now fallen out of a tree once. There are other incidents too, which I conveniently have forgotten about. But now, I am starting to worry that this is probably one of the ways that I am going to leave this world – dramatically! It seems that I am never short of any drama. Trouble seems to follow me wherever I go.

Take this morning. I went to a presentation that was given by our CEO. I was sitting next to one of my colleagues, who didn’t know that I had gone for a tetanus shot on Monday. She was talking to me about something that I can’t care to remember now, and for emphasis, she decided to slap my arm, right on the swollen spot, as my luck would have it. I yelped in pain (the presentation hadn’t started yet) and laughed as much as possible cause there was no way that I was going to cry in front of all these people! But I really wanted to! She felt bad, but suggested that I wear a sign on my arm warning people to stay away from my left arm. As if. But maybe I should…

Funny how that always happens though – when you hurt a part of your body, people always find a way to hit/bump/touch you there. For example, you hurt your toe. Then there will be one or 20 idiots that will step on it. It’s like your toe is calling for them to step on it! How is that?

Anyway, I can’t type anymore, the pain seems to be getting worse. I need painkillers, NOW!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

So how can I explain what happened this weekend in the shortest manner possible? It’s very difficult, let me tell you. It was definitely one of the best weekends that I have ever had. Normally I dread going to these youth get-togethers but this year was definitely different. I got to know so many people and had tons of fun with them. We arrived at Wartburg at 21:30 after a long, tiresome drive from JHB. We dropped our stuff at the hostel then made our way to the church were most of the youth was already there, having just finished with a braai. The people that I really wanted to see (or rather, the guy) still hadn’t arrived so I was a bit bored. We left after an hour and returned to the hostel. Our guys were still on the way from JHB so my friend Claudia and I waited outside the hostel for them, with my box of wine. By the time they arrived it was almost midnight and we were pissed beyond belief. As luck would have it, so were the guys. We squeezed into their car and went to the Hof (the local pub) for more dop. The older youth were already there partying up a storm and so was the guy that I badly wanted to see. We talked kak the whole night and drank till the early hours of the morning. It was definitely a big jol.

At 4am we decided it was definitely time to go to sleep so we made our way back to the hostel, only to find that it was closed and we had no way of getting in. Fortunately we managed to crash at a girls’ place. There were about 10 of us, but luckily, plenty of beds. I didn’t sleep much, one of the guys snored the whole night. Next day Claudia raced back to the hostel for a quick shower as we had less than hour before we needed to be in church for the service and singing. Now that was a load of kak, cause we hardly practised most of the songs, and, our friend saved us seats right in front. Never a good idea.

At least our youth group’s song went very well, we had electric guitars and all so we rocked. People cheered and whistled at the end. After all that, we had lunch, which I stupidly skipped cause I was hungover – I didn’t eat anything till that evening which was a bad thing cause I almost passed out during the games. Before the games started we did two German folk dances on the sports fields, which went quite well. Then the games began. First we had ball-ubern-strick and I was very surprised that we won two out of three games. That secured our place in the semi-finals (we came runners up overall, our best performance ever). The volleyball was even better, as I mentioned yesterday, we won. We were so ecstatic. I screamed as soon as the final whistle blew, even though we were still playing. I was proud to have been captain of the winning team.

We definitely celebrated that night. After taking a much needed two hour nap, we went to a party at the church where we drank, talked kak and I danced with a guy called Frik. He is a very good dancer and in no time I got the hang of the lang-arm dance. After that we all again went to the hof. I thought, since we partied so much the night before, that we’d call it a night early on Saturday night. But no, we managed to go on till 4 am again. I played some pool and then I went back to the hostel with one of the guys from my youth, Wayne. Of course, the hostel was closed but this time we decided we’d jump over the fence. Wayne went first so that he could show me how to go over. He climbed a tree, put both feet on a very unstable wire fence, then jumped over to the other side. I was terrified cause I hate climbing trees and I know I am a terrible klutz. I took a deep breath and started to climb the tree. That didn’t seem too bad. But as soon as I put one foot on the fence I lost my balance and fell to the ground, screaming. It was at least 2 metres that I fell. I hit the back of my head against the tree and cut my hand open. I got up immediately, and laughed. I must have been in pain but because I was drunk I didn’t feel much. But as soon as I saw my hand I wanted to cry. I told Wayne to go to on without me, but he refused to leave me. Luckily the rest of the guys arrived, so they helped me get over the fence. They thought it was hilarious, of course, and enjoyed every moment of it, especially the one who had to push me from behind. As soon as I was over, I let out a huge sigh of relief! I shouted my thanks to the guys and made my way to my room, making a lot of noise. Turns out, we managed to wake up most of the hostel. Ha ha.

The next day we had a very long boring service, in which I struggled to keep awake. We then said our sad goodbyes to everyone we partied with and made the long drive back to Joburg. I was exhausted, sore, and hungover but it was all worth it. I just hope I get to see some of these people soon. They definitely made my weekend.

Oh, and I had to have a tetanus shot yesterday, for the cut on my hand. It hurts like hell, but it serves me right for pretending to be a monkey and climbing trees!

Monday, June 26, 2006

My girls and I beat those snooty Wartburg chicks in the final of the volleyball tournament. It was our first win so we were over the moon and made sure everyone heard us. Apparently the comments from the crowds out there was that they have never seen a team so happy just to make it to the semis. JHB was the loudest and the proudest! What a glorious moment it was for us!!! Now I definitely do not regret being made captain cause I was definitely chuffed. We celebrated like crazy. And not only did we win the volleyball but we also came runners up in the ball-ubern-strick game. Usually we suck at this game but this time we kicked ass. I still got hurt, but all the aches and bruises were worth it.

I can’t comment much more on how awesome this past weekend was cause I am sick, sore and have tons of work to do. I will do a proper blog tomorrow cause this weekend was the best ever. I met wonderful new people, partied like crazy, got little sleep, and basically had the time of my life. Oh, and I fell from a tree. But more about that tomorrow…

Friday, June 23, 2006

For the past few months I have been attending our church’s youth meetings every Sunday, like clockwork, in anticipation and preparation for our annual youth weekend. I belong to a German Lutheran church as I am sure I have mentioned before, which my whole posse is also part of. At every meeting we practice playing volleyball, a kak German game called ball-uber-strick, dancing and singing. Every year, all the youth members of German Lutheran churches across the country get together at a designated host church to sing and compete in certain sports.

This year we are all going to a little German congregation called Kirchdorf in Wartburg (don’t laugh), which is near Pietermaritzburg in Kwazulu-Natal. This time our pastor’s kids won’t be attending since they are already in Germany. It’s going to be strange not having them there but I guess it will be alright since we have gained several new members this year, including the guys we have been partying with a lot lately. I am sort of looking forward to it, I guess, except that I always feel out, cause I am the only one that doesn’t speak German (this year my brothers aren’t attending either). But at least I am trying to learn the lingo and I understand more now than I have in previous years.

We are leaving today around three this afternoon. It’s a 4-5 hour trip so we should be there at 8 the latest. That’s right on time for the first party of the weekend where the entire youth gets together at the local pub and everyone gets to catch up with old friends. I have met several new people this year so I will be glad to see some of them again.

On Saturday we have to get up at the crack of dawn since some bright spark always rings the breakfast bell (yes, there is definitely a bell) at 6am. Who eats brekkie at 6am? I don’t! Then at 9 we have the opening service where lots of singing takes place (we have practiced, but not enough). First the entire youth sings several songs together, then each town’s youth sings their own song (that we HAVE practiced, and it sounds rather good). After that it’s lunch and then we do some folk dances on the sports fields. This year it’s some kak polka dance, which is actually rather funny. I will report back on how that worked out for me. Haha.

Then we compete against each other in the following sports: volleyball (girls, guys), ball-uber-strick (girls, guys), tug-of-war (guys) and touch rugby (guys). Our girls volleyball team always seems to do well, last year we made the finals so maybe this year we will for once and for all. For some stupid reason, I am my team’s captain this year. I must be one of the worst volleyball players, though, like one of the guys said, I don’t have to have ball skills to be captain, just good leadership skills! Too true. So I guess it’s ok then, I love bossing people around. Ha ha. Once all that is done, even though we are all seriously exhausted after a long day, we have our final party where, surprisingly, a lot of lang-arm dancing is done (ok, actually it is not so surprising after all). Booze is cheap, and so is the music. That usually goes on till the early hours.

Sunday most of us escape home but to date I have never managed to escape as early as I’d prefer, since I can’t drive. There is a service that goes on the whole day, where all our churches’ brass bands get together and play non-stop. So I usually park outside and engage in mindless chatter till our designated driver says it’s time to go home. Expect me to be very very tired next week. If I am lucky, I might even post something. Toodles then!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

On Monday I got the shock of my life. I received an e-mail from cousin in Argentina saying that he is going to be a grandfather. It wouldn’t be so shocking if it came from one of my older cousins – my oldest cousin is 55/56 years old, an fair age to be a grandpa. In fact, one or two of my cousins already are. But this specific cousin of mine, Carlos, is 35 years old!! Apparently teen pregnancies run in his side of the family.

My parents kept this story from me until I was old enough to understand, which in their minds, was in my early twenties, ha ha. When Carlos was 17, he got his 14 (!!) year old girlfriend pregnant and so had to go for the shotgun wedding. Considering most of these weddings never last long, it’s nice to see that they are still happily married, four kids later! Sure, they have their bad times, like now, but they manage.

The result of that pregnancy was Eli, who is now 17 years old. Ever since I first met her, when she was six years old, I always knew she’d mean serious trouble for my cousin. She has this mischievous look on her face that tells you that she is up to something, and now she is pregnant. It seems such a shame because she is such a beautiful girl and has so much potential to do something with her life. Now I wonder what will become of her. Yikes, I sound like my mother! What the hell is going on here! Well, I hope things work out for her. I really do. And I am sure that her parents will give her all the support, since they went through it as well. The baby is now due in September, just in time for my parents’ arrival. I hope my mom will behave herself and not lecture the poor child.

It’s amazing how teen pregnancies seem to increase exponentially. You’d think that with all the sex education that is supposedly now taking place, especially due to the AIDS epidemic, that kids would at least be wise enough to practice safe sex. Sure, it’s not always fool-proof (or rather baby-proof) but it’s happening way too often. And it’s shocking that kids as young as 12 are now having sex. Whatever happened to their innocence? At that age I still hated boys! Boy, times sure have changed. And again, I sound like my mother. Ugh.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

My boss is away on a conference today, until Monday, so my friend and I took this opportunity to visit a colleagues who is on maternity leave. She has a month old baby girl with the cutest red hair. Needless to say, we spent most of the day visiting, gossipping about people at work (you know, the usual, who is doing who, who resigned, who is a bitch, etc) plus getting lost in Germiston.

So I dont have much time to post anything decent today (not that many have been decent) as I have tons of work to catch up on and I am leaving in about an hour. I have been invited to a braai tonight so that means little sleep for me again tonight. When will this nonsense end?

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Last night we had a farewell for my posse, aka Ingrid, Ulrike and Renate. They are flying to Germany tomorrow with their family for four weeks. I am going to miss them! Without them I am sure that my social life is probably going to come to an almost complete standstill. I say almost cause I have other friends, of course, but 80% of my jolling these days is done with my chicks. It was sad to say goodbye.

So I have been thinking, while they are away, I can catch up on the following to make the time go a little bit faster:

1. Sleep! I definitely need lots of it. Despite having almost caught up on all lost sleep while recuperating from my tonsillectomy, this last weekend I again slept very little, indeed.

2. The World Cup Soccer. I have missed several crucial matches so now is the time to catch up on the latest.

3. Pay attention to my other friends that I have neglected these past few months. I feel very bad. Especially for a close friend of mine from school. We have been meaning to get together for a cup of coffee for the last year and a half and our schedules never seem to coincide.

4. Scrapbooking. Yes, I know that sounds kak and girlish but I have over 3000 photos that need to be printed and put into albums. Whenever I am with my camera (which is almost always) I get trigger happy and take pics of just about anything.

5. My tax returns! Damn, I seem to forget about that every single day that goes by. I know all my papers are stashed somewhere in my room, laughing themselves to death. Now I have to look for them.

6. Catch up on Prison Break and all of my other fave TV shows that I have recorded these past few weeks due to the World Cup. Tomorrow is the final episode of PB. I am gonna miss Wentworth!!

7. Springcleaning. I don’t even have to run my finger past my furniture in my room to notice the dust. It’s clearly visible. Since we fired our maid, not much has been dusted in my room. I am too lazy.

8. And last, but definitely not least, I have to get my butt moving and re-book to write my learner’s license. I have to get my license to kill, I mean, drive, before hell freezes over!!!

Phew! That is quite a list. And somehow I doubt all that will get done, since I know someone is going to come calling to go over to some jol, sooner or later.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Being a Monday I usually tend to reflect on the weekend past, but this time I am going to break that tradition and talk about what went on in the soccer these past few days. There are a few reasons: 1. Argentina kicked ass, baby! What a performance! 2. I don’t remember too much else about what happened this weekend. 3. And what I do remember, I wish I could forget. Ja, let’s just say Mr Jagermeister and friends got a bit too friendly with me. Enough said.

Anyhoo, back to the soccer. Unfortunately I did not get to watch too many games as I was busy partying up a storm but I did get to watch the most important game of all and the highlight of my weekend: Argentina v Serbia & Montenegro. I was so proud of my country! Wow! Without trying to be biased, oh hell, who cares, I AM going to be biased, Argentina whipped S&M (note the pun) 6-0! This side has truly shown they can possibly take it all the way! I certainly hope so!

What annoys me is the commentators at the end, who most of the time have nothing better to say, and how they now say that they would love to see Argentina play against one of the “stronger” sides. Now wait a minute. During the build-up to the World Cup, ever since the teams were drawn and put into their respective groups, everyone who is anyone has mentioned that Argentina’s group, which also consists of the Ivory Coast and the Netherlands, is the “Group of Death”, meaning that all these countries are quite “strong sides”. So now that the Argentinean side is giving one of their best performances ever, these so-called experts are somewhat doubtful that they will do just as well against a country like say, Brazil (don’t get me started on them) or Germany (who is looking dismal at the moment, despite their two wins).

Maybe I am just analyzing their comments way too much. Sure, they did credit Argentina for their excellent performance and I suppose, in the end everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So I will leave it at that. In no time we will see whether Argentina has what it takes to win the World Cup.

Other matches that went on this weekend were Ghana v Czech Republic – what an upset! I was almost sure, as were a whole lot of other people, that the Czechs were definitely one of the favourites after their first performance against the USA. This time they were beaten 2-0. I was disappointed because, god forbid, should Argentina or Germany not make it to the finals, I would have definitely like to have seen a side like the Czech Republic win the World Cup. But all is not lost, they still have a chance against Italy. Now there is another team that has failed to impress me in this tournament. After beating Ghana unconvincingly 1-0, they only managed to draw with the USA. It will be interesting to see which 2 teams make it to the next round.

The rest of the matches I won’t care to mention. I am just sad that this World Cup is going so fast! And I wonder how SA will do when they host the 2010 game. I will leave that to your imaginations…

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Today is Friday, well, almost, since tomorrow is a public holiday – youth day. And I have quite a weekend planned, as usual. Try as I might to stay indoors tonight, I will probably end up going for a drink or ten tonight. I just can’t say no to a party. But I am going to try my best to stay glued to the couch as I need plenty of beauty sleep tonight – I definitely won’t get that the next few nights!

Tomorrow is one of our friends, Shawn’s, birthday. Since it was Ingrid’s birthday on Monday they are celebrating it together tomorrow night. They promise it to be a huge bash, especially since the guest list is quite extensive and we have to cram into a restaurant. After lots of chopping and changing, they are going to have it a Primi Piatti at Rosebank – no, I am not inviting anyone, this is just noted cause I have nothing better to say right now, ha ha. They were at first going to have it at News Café but that venue is too small and gets way to crowded on a Friday night. Plus my brother says it’s gay. Right, moving on.

So I am bound to get quite inebriated tomorrow night and put a huge dent in my purse. But we have reason to celebrate, people! So no worries there, right? And since Argentina is playing Serbia tomorrow in the World Cup, I am sure we will have lots more reason to raise those glasses and cheer. I know my team will make me proud.

On Saturday, despite having to nurse a hangover for sure, I will have to get up early and get ready for Ingrid’s parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. That is going to be an even bigger bash. In fact, it is guaranteed. Since her dad is the pastor, the whole church has been invited. The guest list is well over 120 people. Oh, boy. And there is no cash bar, meaning alcohol is free. Her dad better have bought enough! There are many alcoholics here!

After all that partying, we have to be all prim and proper, bright eyed and bushy-tailed at church early Sunday morning as the youth (yes, me still included) have to do most of the service, since it’s youth day tomorrow. We have prepared a song, which sounds awesome but considering most of us will have partied non-stop up until the early hours of Sunday, I wonder if our voices will be in top form. Mmm, guess we will have to wait and see…oh, dear me.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Recently I have discovered, or rather, been seduced, by the strong sensational taste of Jägermeister. I blame it on the Germans. It has such an immediate effect on me, that after the first shot, I go and do crazy things like try to sing in German. True story.

Jägermeister means “master of the hunt” in German, that is, in the sense of being an expert or a committed hunter. It contains about 56 herbs, all of which are kept secret, as well as liquorice, which adds to its strong flavour. If you read many of the Jägermeister legends, you will probably know about certain urban legends that claim that it contains deer blood and opium. Sadly, neither is true. What a pity, I love blood.

When it was first produced, it was originally intended for medicinal purposes. It was said to cure just about everything, from a cough to digestive problems. Hey, if you ever need a reason to drink – then drink Jägermeister! It will heal you! In fact, many Germans still keep it in their households for these purposes. Guess what you are going to find in my medicine cabinet from now on! Ha! It’s during times like these that I am proud to say that I have German blood running through my veins.

The popular way to drink it these days is with Red Bull. That is the way my friends and I drink it – downed in one go. Now, before we do that, our custom is to say the poem that is found on the edge of the label of the bottle. It’s quite a tongue-twister and I am still practising it. If I sound so kak saying it when I am sober, imagine how bad it must be when I am drunk!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

It really sucks to be back at work. Especially since I got so used to my routine of well, basically doing nothing to stimulate my brain. Getting up this morning at 5:30, when it was still pitch black, was definitely hard to do. I’d kill to be at home right now, parked in front of the TV watching some dumb movie. But eventually we all have to go back to the real world and earn a living. But at least I am almost pain-free and back to normal. I can actually have tomatoes tonight!! Whooooppeeeee!!!!!

So, this morning, I get to work, open my inbox and wait till over 200 e-mails get downloaded. Reading through them (most of them crap) and answering some, practically took the whole morning. At least that is complete now. I also had to pay several outstanding bills until I realised that I suddenly have less drinking money for this weekend than I thought! The horror of it all! What will I do? Drink less perhaps? Nah, all it takes is some careful financial planning: I will just starve myself for the rest of the week. Ha ha. Thank god it’s pay day next week!

After lunch I decided to tackle the most difficult tasks of the day – writing an online test. As part of an “exciting” work initiative to test our skills, our “wonderful” senior management has come up with a competition that will run for the next 3 months or so, which will consists of about 4-5 rounds. We did round 1 today. The final prize for the people that win the final round is a R20 000 travel voucher plus spending money. Definitely a big incentive, you might say!

In order to prepare for this, we had to go through a manual thicker than my brother’s flabby arms, consisting of our products like foreign exchange, letters of credits, guarantees, exchange control etc, which spells boring, boring, boring. I tried to read through it, but all it managed to do was put me right to sleep. It makes me think that my study patterns have changed a lot since school. I was the typical nerd that would study days in advance, make notes/summaries and study everything backwards, forwards and inside out till the cows came home. In fact, I enjoyed studying! Eeeekkk!!!

Not this time though, and it turns out, that it wasn’t really necessary to swot for this test. It was an open book test, consisting of 50 questions and had an hour to complete. I managed to page through the file to find most of the answers, but funny enough, I knew most of the answers without having to really go through the file. I was so proud of myself! Even more proud when I got my score: 94%. Take that Weasel (my oldest brother), you are not the only one that gets A pluses in the family!!! Ha ha.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Even though I was in unbearable pain, spitting blood and could hardly talk and eat properly, I couldn’t bear the thought of staying home indoors while my friends were out having fun. I WAS planning on taking it easy but Saturday morning that all changed as temptation was just too hard to ignore. Ingrid’s boyfriend, Rudi, phoned me in the morning to ask for directions to the Ellis Park Stadium as he was going to watch the rugby (SA vs World XV). He then invited Ulrike and me to go watch the rugby at his place as a whole bunch of people was going to be there, including Ingrid. He’d meet up with us later.

It seemed harmless enough so I phoned Uli and made the arrangements to go there. She picked me up that afternoon and I made my best efforts to cover up my pain just so that she wouldn’t advise me against going. We bought some supplies, including wine, cigarettes, chips and custard for me. I promised to drink only one glass of wine (but that just never happened).

When we got there the game was well under way, in fact, there were 10 minutes to go till half time. Oh, well. In any case, it wasn’t the most exciting match so we didn’t miss much. After the game the boys started a fire outside to warm us up while we talked the usual kak. It was nice, I must say, very laid back. I got to know several new people, laugh a bit etc. I did not just have one glass of wine but at least I kept it under control. I was even given some “mampoer” (which had 42% alcohol) after I was told by one of the guys that it was a very strong painkiller. Ha ha, thank you Andre, but it didn’t work for long.

After a lot of coercing, I managed to convince the girls that it was time to go home. After all the recent shenanigans that occurred at the guys’ home we needed to prove to them that we were responsible and could go home when it was time to do so, even though the guys were so drunk they insisted we stay. But I was adamant that we go home and sleep in our own beds. I could not afford to sleep on the floor in my condition.

Next day I went to church, had lunch at home and attended our youth meeting in the afternoon. Most of the guys were a tad hung-over so it was fun watching them suffer, ha ha. I was suffering too, but that was to be expected. I did all the things I shouldn’t have: play volleyball, and then sing – that was the hardest part. We are practicing several songs for our youth weekend coming up at the end of the month. My voice took a lot of strain but I couldn’t just sit there and mouth the words. I love singing.

So I paid the price the next few days for insisting on doing all this. But I don’t really regret it. You only live once, right?I am slightly better now and to kick off the World Cup in Germany, I am going back to the guys place tonight to celebrate. I am gonna be surrounded by Germans!!!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I tried to make an attempt to update my blog several times this week but I just couldn’t. As my doctor warned, things got a tad worse for me 5 days after the op. The pain in my throat surmounted to such unbearable heights that I found it hard to eat and sleep. The whole area where my tonsils used to be feels so raw that it stings when I swallow anything, even my own saliva. To make things worse, I ran out of painkillers so my doctor faxed me a new script. I raced to the chemist like a desperate druggie immediately. The pain is still there but at least I can now eat a bit.

To continue my story from last week, after my injection I managed to get some sleep. The anesthesia made me really weak and tired but I was grateful to get some shut eye. During the afternoon my parents came to visit but in my drugged state, I barely remembered the visit. I could hardly talk but I didn’t feel as bad as I expected. My mom handed me my cellphone and so I replied to several sms’s that I had received. Some of them didn’t make any sense but I cannot be help responsible for what I said, ha ha.

The doctor came to check on me later and declared that I was looking good. He gave me two choices: I could go home immediately or spend the night at the hospital. I couldn’t really make up my mind so he made my decision a hell of a lot easier – if I stayed, I could get another injection in the evening. So hell yeah! I wanted an injection so I decided to spend the night there.

Dinner time I managed to eat all my jelly and custard this time, without spitting any of it out. I even had a go at the ice-cream but it was too cold to finish it all. I then attempted to watch some kak movie on the mnet movie magic channel while I eagerly awaited my next injection. To my disappointment, I could not watch Prison Break (oh, Wentworth, sigh) as the hospital did not have the mnet channel – very strange, if you ask me.

Eventually the nurse plus injection arrived and I was soon out like a light. I was woken some time in the evening by a new patient being admitted across from me. She was quite noisy, talking and all but soon I went back to sleep. Several times during the night the pain in the ass nurses came to take my temperature plus blood pressure so I didn’t get all the sleep I craved.

5am we were rudely awakened so that was the end of my sleep. I was forced to go to the bathroom while the nurses made my bed. I then ordered my breakfast and waited impatiently for my next dose of drugs. My doctor came to do his rounds early that morning and said I was fine to go home, so I phoned my dad to come pick me up. Eventually my breakfast arrived. I had asked for scrambled eggs so they brought me a plate full of it – there must have been 10 eggs there. Only managed to eat less than a third of it. While I waited for my dad I got a visit from a friend from work, Madelein. So we had a bit of a chat while I waited. She was surprised that I could talk, even though I was struggling a bit.

When dad arrived, she left and so we went home. The first few days at home were alright, but like I said, eventually things took a turn for the worse. Maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that I went out on the weekend when I shouldn’t have (I just couldn’t stay cooped up indoors any longer) or maybe it was just normal, like my doc said. I just can’t wait till I am 100% better and things return to normal.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

It’s been several days since my last entry, reason being I was in hospital for a tonsillectomy. Yes, I finally got rid of my damned tonsils after several bouts of tonsillitis this year. I will be off work for the next two weeks so I am not too sure how often I will be able to update my blog. I will try to do so every few days or so next week.

Before the op, my tension and nervousness had surmounted quite a bit as I prepared for the worst. Paranoid freak that I am, I looked at the worst-case scenario: that I would bleed to death on the operating table. It wasn’t such an impossible outcome as I am quite the bleeder. Last two ops I had, I bled so much that my ear/nose/throat surgeon had to stick several tubes up my nose to remove all the blood clots. It was painful, indeed. I still do not know what is the cause of it but my current doctor warned me not to take any anti-inflammatories (like my beloved myprodol) prior to the op. That seemed to work.

I arrived at the clinic at the crack of dawn, or 6:30 as some might say, for the usual formalities of checking in, getting the nurses to pry into my medical history and changing into that awful hospital gown and hideous undies. The anesthetist soon followed, who looked like a dirty old man to me. He checked my breathing and off he went. While I waited for my turn to go to theatre I indulged in some reading and tried not to think too much about what awaited me. Every now and then a nurse would take my temperature and blood pressure readings, as is customary, but still much to my annoyance. But shame, they were all very friendly and helpful.

Eventually my turn came and my caretaker nurse, Elaine (bless her, she really calmed me down quite a bit) and an orderly wheeled me and bed to the theatre. I had to wait for what seemed like hours till I was prepped for surgery. In the meantime I had to endure listening to a child who had just come out of surgery, crying hysterically because she was in pain and could not swallow a tablet that the nurses were trying to force down her throat. I felt sorry for the little girl but needless to say, this did not help me much as my own fears resurfaced. Soon I was taken to the actual theatre where that dirty old man was ready to put me to sleep. I didn’t even get to see my doc as I was out like a light before he even arrived.

I awoke in what seemed like five minutes later, to the sounds of a loud nurse trying to get me to wake up, as I slipped in and out of consciousness. Why don’t they just let you sleep? I was happy to do that. I started to shiver so much that she thought I was having a fit so she put more blankets on me. That seemed to calm me down. I was then taken back to my ward. I was all alone, no other patients, so that was nice. I did not bleed to death like I had predicted but I did spit out quite a bit of blood. The nurses served me lunch immediately (even though I wanted nothing of it) and it included jelly, custard and ice-cream. I tried to swallow some of the custard but it would just come right back up. Custard and blood just don’t go together. So I spat it all out in the tub the nurses gave me.

Next I was given an injection on my ass and I was out like a light, finally getting some of the sleep I had been craving all month.